Kostka, Robert (1928-2005) | University of Illinois Archives

Robert Kostka (1928-2005) was a photographer, painter, and visual artist. He was born in Chicago to Anton Miles Kostka and Mary Anna Benes Kostka. After serving in the US Army during the Korean War, Kostka earned an undergraduate degree in visual design and a masters degree in art education from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology (ITT). During his studies, he focused on geometric abstraction and taking lessons with such designers as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Josef Albers, and Peter Selz.

Kostka met Harry Partch in the mid 1950s while he was serving as the art director at WTTW-TV in Chicago. Kostka would design several of the album covers for Partch's albums including Harry Partch-Thirty Years of Lyrical and Dramatic Music (1962) and Water! Water! (1962). In 1966 he became an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus. Kostka staged his first solo exhibition in Chicago in 1967. Several of his paintings are on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. His work is also included at the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art in Sedalia, Missouri and the Brauer Museum of Art in Valparaiso, Indiana.

In the late 1960s, Kostka began publishing on Prairie and Organic Style architecture including articles on the architects William Drummond, Bruce Goff, Walter Burley Griffin, and Frank Lloyd Wright. He was a frequent contributor to the Pairie School Review and published the book Everyday Art. Due to his interests in Organic Architecture and his work with Partch, Kostka introduced Partch to Bruce Goff. Kostka was published extensively about New Mexico and Native American populations in New Mexico. Kostka died in New Mexico in 2005.